Great Salt Lake Levels Rising but Not Healthy Yet
A seven-year lake level high brings relief, but not permission to slow down
By: Shaela Adams, Communications Manager, Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust & Audubon Saline Lakes Program
After another above-average winter, many felt relief to see headlines like “Great Salt Lake level reaches seven-year high” populating Utah’s news cycle last week. Others were witnessing the impacts of rising water levels with their own eyes.
“We’re seeing things out on the water that we haven’t seen in years,” Kyle Stone, a biologist with the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program, explained as he stood on the shore of Farmington Bay, his airboat bobbing against the western shoreline behind him—a shoreline lapping higher up the embankment than it had in recent memory.
Just one week prior, Kyle was spending long, tireless days on his airboat surveying migrating shorebirds as they moved through the lake in their spring migration. While the data is not yet ready to share, he hinted that throughout those days his team witnessed things on the lake—beyond just shorebird counts—that they haven’t seen in years.